Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

The Plaza hotel is home to the jeweler’s first standalone store.

Legendary costume jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane has stepped out from department store counters and moved beyond online retailing with the opening of its first freestanding boutique. Part of The Plaza hotel’s Retail Collection, the brand’s debut shop mixes markets, merchandise and price points.

Despite its Fifth Avenue address and a following among first ladies, royals and celebrities from Audrey Hepburn to the Olsen twins, the brand’s timing of its launch – October 2008 – wasn’t ideal. And the store is situated in the hotel’s “sub level luxury mall,” a space that eventually will include 34 other retailers.

“Being underground is an obstacle, without question. But our neon pink sign is the first thing shoppers see when they come down the escalator,” says Virginia Ferreira, the store’s manager. It also helps that shops with the insider aura of shirt-maker Seize Sur Vingt, Viennese pastry/chocolate specialist Demel and leather goods maker Ghurka are in the lower level neighborhood.

The down economy actually has had an upside for Kenneth Jay Lane. “This year, everyone’s spending habits are more conservative. What helps us is that many women who can’t afford to buy new designer clothes can afford a fabulous-looking piece of costume jewelry,” she says. “We’re seeing weekends and seasonal tourism generating most of our foot traffic.”